Allan Leroy Branson MS (St Joseph’S)
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The Anonymity of African American Serial Killers: From Slavery to Prisons, A Continuum of Negative Imagery Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester by Allan LeRoy Branson MS (St Joseph’s) Department of Criminology University of Leicester September, 2011 ABSTRACT The Anonymity of African American Serial Killers: From Slavery to Prisons, A Continuum of Negative Imagery By Allan LeRoy Branson Race-based perceptions regarding African American males have created the belief that, although these men are frequently associated with crime, they do not engage in serial murder. That conviction reflects a cultural bias whereby white male serial murderers arguably have been given an iconic status within popular culture, and the “anti-hero” traits accorded them are denied to their African-American counterparts, rendering the latter invisible. A combination of critical discourse analysis, case studies, and quantitative analysis of social artefacts provide support for this thesis. An overview of the significant impact of slavery, the creation of media imagery regarding criminality from the late nineteenth century to the present, and the overrepresentation of African Americans in the penal system provide a framework to examine how racism in the U.S. has evolved, how multiple forms of popular media have shaped perceptions of both blacks and serial murderers, and how the FBI’s criminal profiling matrix developed in accord with these cognitive patterns. All combine to create a dangerous delusion that blinds law enforcement to possible perpetrators of serial murder. Significantly, the case of the D.C. Snipers and other black serial killers are examined to demonstrate the biases inherent in social and cultural attitudes to such crimes and the consequences for the continuing anonymity of black serial murderers. 1 DEDICATION To all researchers and law enforcement agents tasked with the investigation of serial murders, may this work enable a new perspective and renewed determination towards apprehension. To the victims of these crimes, your life has value and your deaths have not been in vain. Special thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Yvonne Jewkes and Dr. Sarah Hodgkinson, for recognising the importance of this work and keeping me on the path. I am appreciative too for the support and assistance of all those who have gone before me and saw fit to share their knowledge with me. Lastly, to my mother, Martha Aileen Broady, for rearing me without the all too common social biases related to race in America. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES 6 LIST OF FIGURES 6 INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 19 AND DEFINITIONS African Americans/Blacks 19 Serial Murderer/Killer 21 Mass Murderer 23 Spree Killer 24 Criminal Profiling aka Criminal Investigative 25 Analysis Literature Related to Serial Killings and 26 African Americans The Creation of Perceptions and Media Images 34 Regarding African Americans Defining Serial Murder 41 The Media and Celebrity 44 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 48 Critical Discourse Analysis 50 Case Studies 60 Limitations 68 Goals, Significance, and Questions 68 3 CHAPTER THREE: SLAVERY, CRIMINALITY, MEDIA AND NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES 71 Chattel Slavery 73 Reconstruction and its Aftermath 79 Black Criminality and Incarceration 82 Trauma 95 Media Images and Stereotypes 103 Analysis of a Continuum of Contemporary 111 Perceptions Discussion 114 CHAPTER FOUR: THE ROLE OF THE FBI, 117 DEFINING SERIAL MURDER AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES The Inception of the Behavioral Science Unit 121 The FBI’s Inductive Methodology and 127 Ethnocentric Profiling Research Criticisms of the FBI’s Methodology 134 Psychological Overview, Behavioural Antecedents 140 and Personality Constructs Serial Murder and African Americans 153 Discussion 160 CHAPTER FIVE: THE MEDIA’S ROLE IN 164 CREATING FICTIONAL MONSTERS: TELEVISION, NEWSPAPERS, BOOKS, AND FILMS Media and Law Enforcement’s Depiction of 165 Blacks The Rise of the Serial Killer’s Mystique 171 The Black Serial Killer as the Anti-Icon 176 4 The Serial Killer in Popular Culture, Literature, 181 and Film Harrison Graham and Gary Heidnik, a Comparison 190 of Media Portrayals The Significance of the D.C. Snipers 200 Discussion 206 CHAPTER SIX: SERIAL KILLERS, 208 CELEBRITY, AND RACE “Media Attractive” Serial Killers and Celebrity 209 Length of Investigations and News Articles’ 212 Shelf Life Victimology and Celebrity 215 Serial Killer Identity 219 Bizarre or Occult Behaviour 221 Typologies and Celebrity 223 Discussion 229 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS 235 Practical Applications for Law Enforcement 239 Police and African Americans 239 DNA, CODIS, and Cold Case Files 244 Race as a Factor within the Interview Setting 250 Future Research Regarding African American 254 Serial Murderers Discussion 260 5 FIGURES 265 Fig. 1 U.S. Title 28 Sec. 540B 265 Fig. 2 Image of a lynching in the U.S., 266 20th century Fig. 3 Images of segregation 267 Fig. 4 Historic media depictions of blacks in 268 sheet music and in the journal Puck Fig. 5 Images of Civil Rights protests 271 Fig. 6 Walsh’s table 273 Fig. 7 Known African American serial killers 274 Fig. 8 Disparate media coverage 275 Fig. 9 Serial killer films and book sample 276 comparison APPENDICES 278 A. Comparative New World Slavery 279 B. Harrison Graham Interview 284 C. D.C. Snipers’ Chronology 298 REFERENCES 300 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Events and potential triggers for 100 African American trauma Table 4.1 Holmes typology 130 Table 4.2 Serial killer motivational chart 132 Table 5.1 Amazon.com (book) popularity rankings 185 Table 5.2 Gary Heidnik and Harrison Graham 198 6 INTRODUCTION Why do many Americans believe that there are no black serial killers? If one were to pose the question, “Can you name an African American serial killer?”, most of those in the U.S., black or white, until recently might have answered, “Wayne B. Williams”, the so-called “Atlanta child murderer”, suspected of killing as many as 26 black children in Atlanta, Georgia between 1979 and 1981. If the respondents were more astute, they might suggest, correctly, the more recent D.C. Snipers, John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.1 In fact, even though researchers (Jenkins, 1993; Hickey, 2002; Walsh, 2005 et al) have identified black serial killers, individuals like Coral Watts—an African American suspected of committing more murders than Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy combined—remain virtually unknown to the American public (Mitchell, 2006). The origins of serial killer beliefs in the U.S. shall be explored through an examination of the discourse regarding African Americans from slavery to the present, the FBI’s serial killer research, media portrayals, and case studies. When African American serial predators John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo (aka the D.C. Snipers or Capitol Beltway Snipers) began their predations in the autumn of 2002, law enforcement failed to identify them, due in part to a race-based profile. Despite existing data regarding the presence of African American serial killers in the U.S., law enforcement’s failure to consider these facts impeded that criminal investigation. Consequently, despite research to the contrary, there is little evidence to 1Though not viewed as traditional serial killers, they were classified as such by FBI criminal profilers (Douglas, Burgess A. W., Burgess A. G., and Ressler, 2006, p. 455). 7 suggest that the public’s perceptions of Wayne Williams, the D.C. Snipers and other black serial killers are little more than aberrations and that generally they are, indeed, non-existent. During a discussion with a black urban street gang, sociologist and author of Gang Leader for a Day Sudhir Venkatesh (2008) posed a question regarding an episode of the HBO television series The Wire. When he asked the gang members why black serial killers do not exist, he was answered by a telling, joking punch line, “…because we can’t count that high.”2 Additionally, a black male acquaintance of this researcher rationalised, “We can’t be serial killers, we just started being quarterbacks.”3 Both statements speak to an important aspect of black serial killer anonymity—a negative (self) image that is incongruent with existing iconic, dramatic, and mythological portrayals of the serial killer as a white, highly intelligent male predator (Holmes and Holmes, 1998). Further illuminating the issue of self-image and media portrayals is a statement by the African American police chief who headed the Sniper Task Force, acknowledging this fatal error: Our two principal suspects were both African American. In American criminal history, serial killers are rarely black. The profilers had missed this entirely. No one expected the sniper suspects not to be white men… (Moose and Fleming, 2003, p. 292). These statements also reveal a lack of portrayals within the media that promotes the non-existence or anonymity of blacks as perpetrators of serial homicide. In America, a curious dichotomy exists. The historic negative discourse of black men, readily depicted by the media as thugs, gang members, and drug dealers, coexists with a strong reluctance to portray them as serial murderers. This research suggests that the origins of the negative self-image that blacks possess, as well as their lack of media 2 Source: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire-part- five/?pagemode=print 3 A reference to the National Football League’s offensive captain, traditionally the team leader. 8 portrayals in a serial killer role, can be directly linked to slavery in the U.S. Similarly, it is suggested that these negative images of black males in American society preclude them from being perceived as the iconic predators that serial killers have become in the U.S. Furthermore, the media’s continuum of negative portrayals of blacks in general, coupled with that group’s criminality and criminalisation, have perpetuated race-based perceptions of the group.